Our rating for Sanjay Mishra's Kaamyaab is 4 stars. The overall product may not be extraordinary but there are strokes of brilliance here and there that make this film a must-watch.

Sanjay Mishra in a still from Kaamyaab&nbsp

Writer-director Hardik Mehta’s Kaamyaab opens with a Bollywood news reporter interviewing a nearly forgotten character actor, Sudheer, at his shabby house in Mumbai. The setting is as real as it possibly could be. The interviewer has an ear-to-ear smile on her face, the fakeness in her excitement clearly visible. The interviewee is barely interested. He is honest to the point of insanity. He is dry as dust when the interviewer enthusiastically talks about the crazy popularity of one of his yesteryear dialogues.

In a noteworthy moment, he is even asked to pretend, sadly a normal in showbiz. But his interest arises only when he is told that he is just one film short of completing 500. Mehta, with this simple yet profound first scene, manages to show you what life of a character artiste, after all those years of being in front of the camera, looks like – the one who frequently gets recognised on the streets but whose name no one knows. In the words of Sanjay Mishra, who plays the main protagonist in this film, they are “har kisse ke hisse” (part of every story).

Kaamyaab, shouldered by Mishra (who shines in every scene of the film) and supported ably by Deepak Dobriyal and Isha Talwar, is centered around a character actor who wants to fulfil his wish of completing his 500th film. Through the course of his journey, we are provided a fresh perspective on how the big, bad world of Bollywood functions and how it can be ruthlessly tantalizing at times.

“Ye purane chawal se risotto banana bohot mushkil hota hai,” says Gulati, a quick-witted casting director (brilliantly played by Dobriyal) to his assistants while talking about the hero of this film after he repeatedly fails during an audition. This is a world where there is no room for patience and where being relevant is the key to staying in the game. Making right choices at the right time is, of course, another factor that helps one survive. Gulati also made one. In one of the scenes, he brags in front of Sudheer as to how he is called the Steve Bucknor of the industry – like Bucknor, who left batting for umpiring, he, too, quit acting to pursue casting direction.

Mehta, best known for writing the 2017 film Trapped, masterfully offers you a contrasting view of the film industry’s different generations through a young and struggling actress (beautifully portrayed by Talwar), who lives in an apartment right below Sudheer’s. While the protagonist is striving for a ‘comeback,’ this girl, possibly in her mid twenties, is surviving in the Maximum City through small roles in web shows. A brief conversation between her and Sudheer explains the vast gap between the two generations. There is also a well-thought-out scene depicting how a character artiste, no matter how hard he works, can be overshadowed by a star in a matter of seconds. His very existence is deemed meaningless as soon as a star appears.

Kaamyaab features well-known character artistes such as Avtar Gill and the late Viju Khote, who lend authenticity to the film. Despite a slow second half, which appears to be going nowhere, the film has its heart in the right place. The overall product may not be extraordinary but there are strokes of brilliance here and there that make this film a must-watch.